#scarsdale

The note reads Zara, Emmit here. This is a goblin parchment so it'll poof fast. Sorry to bother you, but I recently did a working to help a new selkie in the world. Drew in some power to do it, and I think a certain something I gave you may have been drained in the doing. I don't feel too worried as the reason you needed it is gone, but let's just say a circle is faded. If you really need another, you know where to find me

and it poofs in a light flame

A sigh. "Well.. it was time."

"Oh... the agony is sweet" a sigh happy one "I ..." she pauses "To find myself, blighted and boorish and in a place I do not understand. With a man who is... " for once her sister seems to lose her eloquences in lie or truth

Zara smiles.

"Indeed. A long time. Beleaguered by a black-and-white jester, a spinster..."

"Aye" her eyes grow moist "some nights I fear the mask shall be torn from my face and the fool wise up, does he not know that I am... this? What right have I to...anything?"

"Every right. Thou art worthy of love and happiness."

"my color is crimson" says the girl in grays, silvers and whites

"Your color is crimson and violet and ultramarine. Any and all you desire."

"it was always another who designed for me... venomous green, bloody scarlet, oh how father used to insist how I dressed"

"So - perhaps now is time to spread your wings, try something new? Worst case, you dislike it, and cast it aside."

"Now I design my own clothes, yes" Hidden meanings that zara sees obvviously "but do I deserve to?"

"I put on the red gloves. I wore the arsenic green veil."

"Yes. Yes, you deserve the entire world!"

"You sound like a fool..." She says "Of course, you know that fool well... he goes on, blathering about how my beauty outshines the stars and my grace the zephyr" A sigh "Most anoying and unseemly" A blush "If either of you had sense you'd grab stones and hurl them at my fat head"

"Perhaps if you listen long enough, it will vex thee less. And I think that is a song you need to hear."

A blush over her pale features

"My sister should be cherished, and loved, and should dance in the moonlight without fear."

"And thee?" She says moving towards her

"I?" A sigh, and she looks around. "It seems I have won, does it not? I have everything I love, safe."

"Aye, and yet?"

"And yet?"

"And yet," She nods "Here you are, amid their crowd. Here you are, with your troll. Here you are questing as you enjoy." A curious look, "And yet."

"Exactly. This was a triumph. A miracle, that we got away so well..."

"The cake is moist?" A tilt to her head

"Surely."

"Then what troubles thee about it?"

She sighs. "I know not."

"I feel... hollow. I should be happier."

"Oh yes, you are now free to be as other say you should" A nod "Joyous liberation" At this she hugs her sister "Thyme can be a healing spice, and even when one is not wounded, its taste can bring balance. I press and pry with my crowbark, but in truth, I know what it is to be Zara"

"I..." Uncertain, but then she returns the hug.

"It occurs to me, wise sidhe that I am, that it matters not if one has been a prisoner in a cavern of snakes for all her life, or a farm of grain for a few moons. Peace becomes an unnatural thing, and how do we defend agaisnt THAT?"

Zara bites on her lip and nods. "It feels... a falsehood. Like there is something else waiting. It was too easy."

"A snowball is supposed to end as an avalanche, not as a puddle" She nods

"...aye."

"one toe at a time, River goddess, if that is what it takes, " Her sister says gently "but I know the river will be yours again."

"I will help thee make your way to it, but you must... continue to remind me where the sky is. I have not flown in.." A stunned look "So long"

"And thou must needs fly. Of this, I am adamant."

"Sisters are such bothersome bullies" She sighs

"I have many regrets, but you? You are a salve, a joy. I am so happy to have thee as a sister."

She smiles then speaks up "You simply must let me dress Earl, as my task must needs practice upon the masculine countour... edwardian suits, but I wondered how thou felt about him in Colonial? "

"Mmmm... I could be convinced."

"I do like a jabot."

"Ah.." earl peeks his head down, now showered , dressed in clean clothes "Am I being..voluntold?"

"who does not?" she says "I pondered French Revolutionary"

"isn't that bedraggled starving and bloody?" Earl says

"We shall not bedraggle you. Much."

He blushes.

"Oh what a dirty mind he has" A GASP from The moth